Day off…kind of March 29, 2005

I got to work on Leo tonight in class, I’m about half an inch away from the armhole shaping. I am determined to have this sweater done by the wedding! If only I could just learn how to purl faster, I hate purling. My purls are so loose so I tighten each of them with a little extra tug, it doesn’t slow me down too much, just enough to annoy the crap out of me!

Still no camera, which means: no pictures. So just to keep you lovely people from falling asleep or taking me off your list of blogs to ogle (i like pretty pictures too), here is a picture of our futon. Just because.

Secret Pal Goodness and an Anniversary March 24, 2005

I still don’t have the digital camera here at home which is really bumming me out because I want to show off all the goodies I got! On Monday I came home to a lovely package from FRANCE! It contained some lovely Phildar Plaisance in the happiest color I have ever seen, Vitamine. Its a bright cheery fiery orange, love it! I will take pictures as soon as I possibly can. You can imagine how excited I was when I received a package that had “laine” on the contents label!!
She also sent me a wonderful post card which is just perfect for Jered and me as we are both avid cyclists, again a picture is warranted.
Now to the sweets, oh the sweets! I’ll start with the sweet smelling L’Occitane soaps, simply delightful! Then there are the fruit gelees, I haven’t eaten any of them yet because I want to take pictures (you can imagine my frustration at not having a camera yet!) Then there was a lovely assortment of carmels and bonbons…yum!
I also got a sweet little school set with a pencil pouch, eraser, pencil sharpner, tres mignon. I have to admit, I had some caramels already…i’ll take pictures of the wrappers, that counts, right?!
Thank you so much secret pal, you really helped kick start my week! Merci

On top of the lovely surprise on Monday, today is our 6 year dating anniversary. We went out for a lovely sushi dinner tonight and I picked up the icecream cake I ordered on Monday. Any excuse I can possibly have is justification for icecream cake. We haven’t had any yet, but boy am I looking forward to it! I ordered an Oreo with yellow cake with a special message on it, but they forgot to put my order in, so they gave me a slightly larger cake (pralines and cream with white cake), took 10% off the original price and gave us a dozen free donuts (our baskin robbins is also a dunkin’donuts, its sinful.
Jered also got me a vase full of gerber daisies, my favorite flowers at the moment and yet another reason I wish I had a camera!

On the knitting front things have been stale, I have started socks and have worked a total of two rounds. What can I say? I have three huge projects due in the next 3 weeks and I just can’t find the time to start something new…its a real bummer! Although, the Phildar is calling my name and as soon as I get the pictures I am going to find the perfect project for it. Does anyone have any ideas for me? If you do, leave me a link to the pattern in my comments (hehe, sneaky me, i just want comments)!

Weekend Blogging Pattern March 20, 2005

Every weekend I find myself thinking the exact same thing, hardly anyone updates their blog! Then I look at when my last entry was and think to myself, hey I’m part of that!
Just when I have more time there are less entries to read, but then again, I enjoy blog surfing when i have a lot to do as it lets me procrastinate

Today was my very first bridal shower, it was a blast! My conversation partner Grace came, and a lot of my friends from school/work. We got a ton of loot. Oh my goodness! It is just crazy how much stuff we got. I came home and Jered and I had to make 3 trips down to the car just to carry everything up!
We played some really fun games too. Michelle got in touch with Jered and asked him a list of questions, I had to guess what his answers to the questions were, and if I got it right I had to take a hershey’s kiss, but if I got it wrong then I had to chew two pieces of bubble gum. Two pieces of bubble gum for every wrong answer is a lot of gum. I must have had 12 pieces of gum in my mouth by the end of it all, it was a riot!

We got all of this great cookware so when I got home, Jered and I updated our registry, unpacked our goodies and started to organize everything for thank you notes. Then I made dinner, in my new pyrex. Life is good.

Good News! March 17, 2005

The melanoma is only in the first stages so everything should be able to get cleared up with a little more surgery. I am so relieved. The past two days have been a bit of a blur, I think not knowing is the hardest part. Now that we know that its in the very early stages and that with surgery everything should be okay i feel so much better.
I’ve been distracting myself by knitting away and just trying to not think about it. I wanted to wait until we knew more to really get stressed about the whole thing, and I’m glad I did. It was nearly impossible not to think about it, but I did my best to distract myself and just wait it out. Thank you all for your kind words and thoughts, they really helped me calm down

So, now that things are looking up I’ve decided to cast on for a new pair of socks. I made Jered’s mom the cable socks from the Knitting on The Road book and they turned out gorgeous, I love sock knitting and haven’t made a pair since then, so its about time! I think I’ll cast on after I finish this up.

This Sunday is my first bridal shower. My boss is throwing me one that all of my school friends, and mom and sister are going to come to. Its nice to have one this early because it will get me in the mindset of “Oh my God I’m getting married in two months!” I think it might actually start to sink on on Sunday!

I finished tempting, I just need to graft the underarms and buy a ribbon. My yoke is soooo huge, and I may end up frogging it back a bit and decreasing…I’ll decide once I put the ribbon in and see if that helps tighten it up a bit. It turned out really well, I loooove the color and it wears really nicely. I can’t wait until its warm enough for me to wear it to work!

I leave you with a picture of drool-able yarn (on display at knittapalooza last weekend)…I want some lace-weight anything to make a shawl soooo bad! Miriam has inspired me to want to make something very complicated and lacy…I think I might have to make a little trip to KnitPicks…online yarn rocks!!! Does anyone have any suggestions for lacy projects? I’m craving it like a donut on Sunday morning.

I don’t know what the title of this entry should be March 15, 2005

I found out today that my dad has melanoma. It has been a rough day. My mom called me this afternoon and told me, and then I called my dad to get more info. He said that the doctors want to go in and make sure they cut it all out and that they will let him know in a few days what stage the cancer is at. I am so scared. Petrified. I don’t know what to do, or how I should be feeling but I cried so much today. I went to class and by the end of it I just felt numb. Jered has been really supportive, we talked about all the what ifs, its nice to have someone who understands. Sometimes its just awful when people tell you “Everything is going to be okay” I know that it is said with the best of intentions, but when you’re scared it just doesn’t seem right. I don’t know if that makes any sense. I feel like saying to people, what if it won’t be okay? What then?
My dad is so positive too, he’s the eternal optimist, but I suppose at some level i know he must be scared too. Its hard for me to see him try to be strong and positive, I don’t want to let him see me upset by this, and I don’t really want him to know that i’m scared. My parents haven’t told my brother or sister yet. I wish they would sooner rather than later but that is their decision to make.

I don’t know what else to say…

Wind me up Buttercup March 14, 2005

I got a ball winder! Wowsa…how cool is that? Okay, so what do you do when you get a new ball winder? You wind your entire stash into center pull balls and spend an hour arranging them by color so that you can have another reason to just sit and stare at your yarn stash. At least that’s what I did!
I love it, love it love it love it!

So with every good things, comes something not so good…I went to the dermatologist this morning to have this strange thing on my back looked at. A little back-track, my mom says i’ve had this thing on my back since I was about 4 and we’ve always thought it was a brown recluse bite or something creepy like that. It looks like 6 little blisters and it sits at this place in my back where it gets constantly irritated by my bra straps, so I decided while I still have free med benefits (until the wedding) I would get it looked at and possibly removed. You see, I have this fear of anything sharp and pointy that might need to come into contact with my body, namely scalpels, razors, needles, you get the point. So today I go in to the dermatologist expecting to have a diagnosis-type appointment where they basically tell me to come in again in a month, nope. No such luck. I go in, I’m seen right on time (a rarity at military hospitals) and am seen by an extremely nice doc who tells me that the mystery thing on my back is not a spider bite at all, but super thick, dense skin that I’ve most likely had since i started existing. Supposedly they are not too common but they are benign, which was good. Then she tells me I don’t need to have it removed necessarily because its not anything that will hurt to keep around. So, I leave, right? No. I think I love to scare myself shitless because I told her to take it off. So after 8 little spritzes of lidocaine (sp), which is not pleasant, holy cow, she shaved it off my back. So now i have a rather large (3 in) area on my back that is completely raw…it hurts! Eegads!
But its gone, I will have a smooth back for the wedding, how lovely! I wish it didn’t hurt so much…Oh well, I have my ball winder to take away the pain

Knittapalooza was so much fun this weekend, it was just unbelievable, I enjoyed every minute of it. I met some great people and learned so much my brain is still bulging. The fair isle class yesterday was amazing. I figured out what I was doing wrong, apparently I never learned the proper way to carry yarn which ended up being my entire problem. Projects do tend to pucker if you just string along the yarn for 5-20 stitches! Duh!

My fabulous secret pal has asked me to explain a bit about double knitting (the tubular cast on) so I will. I am so excited about this technique, it is sooooo cool. Basically what it is: You cast on half the number of stitches you need with waste yarn (an odd number) for something like a neckband/sleeve/headband etc., then you join your yarn, and on the first row you k1, yo all the way around (we did all of this on dpn or circs). The next row (row 2, and row 4)are done by *sl 1 purlwise wyib, p1* all the way around. The following row (and row 5) is done by *k1, sl 1 purlwise wyif* all the way around. On row 6 and 7 you *k1, p1* all the way around. This created our little neckband for our mini aran from the neck down. I’m sure you could repeat row 2-5 many times and just make larger tubular knit pieces. It is so cool because it creates a hollow center! When you are done with the first repeat of row 2-5 you can pick out the waste yarn cast on. It seems so scary, but nothing unravels when you pick it out and both sides of the piece look the same! It is sooooo neat! I definitely want to play around with it some more. It makes the most elastic, stretchy thing you will ever knit, so very very cool!
Beth Brown-Reinsel’s classes were the neatest things I’ve ever had the pleasure of taking part in. Here are some of the items she brought with her, they are just stunning.

Knittapalooza!!! March 12, 2005

This weekend has been a blast! Friday morning started off with a twined knitting class in which i learned that being ambidextrous would be very advantageous in knitting! Beth Brown-Reinsel is an awesome instructor. Even though there were about 20 other people in the class it was like having a personal tutoring session. She is so helpful and so amazingly talented!
Double ended knitting is really neat, it creates this dense fabric and these cool little patterns. I had read a few patterns and articles that talked about two ended knitting but I could never really understand it. The class was definitely worth it, quite inspiring.
The second half of the day was a latvian wristers class. Wow. Its two ended knitting with color and all these crazy scalloped edges and herringbone braids, holy cow! I was using more of my brain than i usually do! This is what I ended up with, my fair isle definitely needs work (its so tight and puckers so much i can’t even get it over my hand!) But you can get the general gist of things from this picture.

Thankfully, tomorrow I am taking a fair isle class, maybe i’ll make a new wrister after tomorrow’s class

Lily Chin was teaching classes at Knittapalooza this weekend as well. I didn’t sign up for any of her classes but it was amazing watching her knit and crochet, she is so fast! And she’s quite nice, I even got a picture with her.

Today’s class was by far, my favorite so far. It was an aran from the neck down class and I learned so much I can’t even believe it. The class was all day and we learned all sorts of neat aran techniques. My favorite part was learning how to do double knitting to create an elasticy neck band. I finished the front and back of my mini-aran and hope to work a bit on the sleeves tomorrow. We learned how to do short rows to create a nice neck line. I can’t wait to knit a sweater from the neck down!
Here is my mini-aran.

The day ended with a fashion show, dinner and giveaways. I was crossing my fingers for the $100 rowan gift certificate, but no such luck. What a day! It was amazing. I can’t wait to learn fair isle tomorrow. There are so many talented knitters at knittapalooza, what a treat!
More tomorrow…

Tempted by the fruit of another… March 9, 2005

Tempting is almost done, I am working on the sleeves now when I should be working on homework. I thought grad school would give me more time to knit, not take away knitting time! But sneaking in a few rounds here and there is more fun anyway, right?!

I wish today would just slow down already. I started laundry this morning after sleeping in until 8:30 (ahhhhh). I finished a few papers, worked on some journals, and prayed that my to-do list would end already! The laundry is still in progress, nearly 6 loads with sheets and towels and all of the dryers were full. I cannot wait until we have our own washer and dryer!

Tempting has been calling me all afternoon. Every word I type I hear my magpie saying “Esther, you are wasting your life doing homework and chores, come touch me.” Its maddening. I think that’s mostly because she’s so close to being done. Jered promised he’d bring home the digital camera from work in the next coupla days so i should have a few very picture heavy posts. I have the baby sweater, tempting and lots of leo to show, and of course Friday Saturday and Sunday are Knittapalooza and I will be taking a ton of pictures there!

On to another completely random topic (i feel like i’m free associating), I’m making quiche tonight. I haven’t made it in a while and was feeling lazy so I bought pre-made pie crust. We have mondo amounts of eggs that need to be used up, so what better way to do that than make a quiche? I already used some yesterday when I baked the ueber delicious chocolate chip cookies that Super Eggplant so kindly provided the recipe for. They are c-h-e-w-y! Yum!

So I realize now that this post is about nothing at all, really. I am stalling. I’m so sick of homework I’m hoping my cats eat my text books. Maybe if I don’t feed them for a day or two….

Addendum: Never mind the not feeding the cats thing. I just looked down and Jinx is curled into the Kitty Bed I made for Floyd when he was a kitten. He is too fat now, but she can fit into it if she curls up just right. I wish I had a camera! She looks so peaceful right now. I love my cats! Okay, back to homework.

Spring Break 2005 March 5, 2005

Woohoo! No wild partying for me, but I did have an adult beverage with lunch today.
One of my bridesmaids came down from Maryland today to help us with wedding stuff. She and I embossed invitations most of the day and took a little trip to the local Michaels. I got some good ideas for things to do as center pieces, and I also realized that Michaels has greatly expanded their yarn selection. Granted, most of it is novelty yarn, but they did have some cool tape yarn, and even some self-patterning sock yarn. Not that I need anymore sock yarn!
They also had ball winders for sale. I almost bought one, but I just can’t afford it right now. I’ve been wanting one since October and I keep telling myself that I’ll buy one eventually, but right now with the wedding coming up so soon and Knittapalooza yet to be paid off I just can’t see buying one when I can use my knees as a swift and my hands as the ball winder! I know, its only $40, but… eh, I just can’t justify it.
I had a dream about winding 20 skeins of debbie bliss cashmerino into balls the other night. I don’t know why it was 20, but i distinctly remember that I was making them into balls and that I got to take them home with me (the dream was in my LYS).

Now that I’ve weirded all of you out, I’ll let you know that I finished the baby sweater and it is done blocking and has been pressed. I have yet to find cute buttons to add, but otherwise it is done.
After reading Lolly’s blog I was inspired to rip out my knit-by-numbers pullover and start Tempting with my Magpie. Tempting uses far less yarn and I was able to get gauge with my 7’s. I’m about 4 inches into the body and loving the way the ribbing looks and feels. Thanks for the inspiration Lolly! My search for more magpie was leading me to nothing but dead ends, who knew all I needed was a different project!

It’s tempting to just knit away my entire spring break, but there is quite a lot I need to try to get done in the next week. Jered is taking Monday off so that we can have a little bit of time together. We finished the wedding invites tonight and have started to address the envelopes with the hope of getting them sent out by Wednesday of this week. I even bought postage. I have 3 papers to write and a genogram to illustrate by next week. I tried to knock out some of my homework this week before spring break started but I got distracted. Casting on for tempting was much more fun than starting my marriage and family take home…blah!

Its just nice knowing that I can sleep in a little the next few days. Next Friday I’ll be off to Knittapalooza so I keep telling myself that getting all my work done will make next weekend even more relaxing than it is sure to be! I am so excited about the classes I got into. I am going to try and get Jered to bring home the digital camera so I can take lots of pictures. And, the best part about knittapalooza: another exuse to buy yarn. Bwahahahahaha….I love it!

Karma March 2, 2005

It’s all coming back to me and the world is good again! We found a priest! I am sooo happy, excited, relieved. It is unbelievable how much pressure this takes off of Jered and me. We have been looking since October, and finally, today, found one who is willing to marry us. After juggling the time of the wedding around a little (we only ended up having to shift it an hour and a half) we were able to confirm everything. We have to start filling out all of our prenuptial paperwork; getting new baptism certificates, having our parents sign affidavits in the presence of a priest, all that good stuff. Now that we have a priest, everything else will just be so much easier.

On the knitting front, I called Ewe Knit Kits on yesterday to see if I got any of my first and second choices in terms of the classes I want to take at knittapalooza, and I thought that I would definitely have at least some classes that weren’t even my first or second choice since I registered soooo late. No. I got every single first choice. Wow. Talk about exciting. I’ll be doing the Twined knitting and Latvian Wristers with Beth Brown Reinsel, an Arans from the neck down work shop with her as well, and a Fair Isle class with Hilde Oppedal. I am psyched!
I’m waiting to get my homework packet in the mail with the materials I will need and what to expect. I think this will be challenging, and it will be nice to meet some knitters from the area. The meetup group I started is still so small, only one woman comes regularly. I’ve been thinking of going to the Williamsburg Stitch and Bitch on Mondays, and might start that during spring break next week. We shall see.
Anyhow, I am just totally excited that I got all four of my first choices!
And, I have a secret knitting pal! Hello KRSP! I noticed your comments a day or so ago, this is very exciting

I saw this on Bonne Marie’s Blog and had to take the quiz… How fun is this?!

You’re Betty Grable!

What Classic Pin-Up Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla
I have no real knitting news other than the fact that I finished the baby sweater that I’m making for my boss. I just have to attach the buttons and press it gently to get the seed stitch border to lie flat. Its quite lovely, if I do say so myself.

I’m going to go get some icecream now, today was cause for celebration